ESKAPE bacteria

From Medscape Infectious Diseases:
Emerging Antibiotics: Will We Have What We Need?

" * More US patients die of MRSA infections than HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis combined.
 * Only 2 new antibiotics -- doripenem and telavancin -- have been approved in the past 3 years.
* We have no drugs to treat infections with some strains of multi-drug-resistant gram-negative bacilli, like Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii.We may finally have arrived at the era of the untreatable bacterial infection."The ESKAPE ( they effectively escape the effects of antibiotics)

E	Enterococcus faecium	Third most common cause of HCA BSI. Increasing resistance to vancomycin.
S	Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)	Emerging resistance to current drugs and significant drug toxicities. Lack of oral agents for step-down therapy
K	Klebsiella Escherichia coli K pneumoniae	ESBL-producing organisms increasing in frequency and severity; associated with increasing mortality. K pneumoniae carbapenemases causing severe infections in LTCF. Few active agents; nothing in development
A	Acinetobacter baumannii	Increasing worldwide, recent surge reported in hospitals. Very high mortality. Carbapenem-resistant.
P	Pseudomonas aeruginosa	Increasing P. aeruginosa infections in US and worldwide. Resistant to carbapenems, quinolones, aminoglycosides
E	Enterobacter species	MDR HCA infections increasing; resistance via ESBLs, carbapenemases, and cephalosporinases

HCA = healthcare associated; BSI = bloodstream infection; MRSA = methicillin resistant S aureus; ESBL = extended-spectrum beta-lactamase; LTCF = long-term care facility; MDR = multiple drug-resistant